Looking for home networking hardware and software advice
- by phobos7
Note: I originally wrote this up in a blog post. I've removed any affiliate links that I put in my original post to ensure I don't annoy anybody.
I've recently moved home and I now need to go to the trouble of sorting out my home network yet again. We had Virgin broadband in Hertford but you can't get Virgin in the street we've moved to so I've had to go with O2 Broadband. Normally I prefer to use my own hardward, and previously used the DLink DIR-655 router which was great, but in this situation I am using the O2 Wirelss Box III since I only have an old Netgear DG834PN Wireless G modem router and I'd rather be using Wireless N.
Anyway, the place we have moved into has only one phone point in the hallway, has the best TV point in one room and the best place to put the TV and other entertainment stuff in yet another room. So, networking the house up for Internet and TV is required. The diagram below shows the things that I'll have in my home network but there are three points where I'm not quite sure what hardware to us.
Wireless Access Point/Bridge, that
acts only as a wireless to wire
bridge and not an AP, that links up
a Media Centre/PC and a couple of
consoles to the network. I'm pretty
much settled on us an Acer Aspire
Revo R3600 as my media PC, probably
with Ubuntu or Windows and XBMC
installed.
Wireless Access
Point/Bridge, that acts only as a
wireless to wire bridge and not an
AP, that links up a device that can
decode and stream TV from a TV
aerial across the network.
The
device that is connected to 2). At
the moment I'm considering a
HDHomeRun by SiliconDust.
At the moment I'm considering either the TP LINK TL-WA701ND 150Mbps Wireless Lite N Access Point (very cheap at Amazon) or the Netgear 5 GHz Wireless-N HD Access Point/Bridge.
I'd love to get some insight into what you would do in my situation.
What Wireless Access Point/Bridge
should I put at points 1) and 2)?
What device should I choose for point
3) that can decode and stream a TV
signal?
Is the Acer Aspire Revo R3600
a good choice?
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Note 2: I've also posted this question on AVForums.
